Never heard of this one... Raid and trumped charges

Kurt, Angie and their son, Erik, did what they have been doing for over 15 years: they went to the "Big Reno Gun Show" at the Hilton Casino in Reno, Nevada on April 23rd 2004. The first day of the show, Kurt Wilson was arrested and had over $75,000 of valuable and collectable firearms taken by the BATF at that gun show, and his business "Survival Enterprises" was ransacked by agents of various law enforcement agencies and agents of the BATF in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where over $40,000 of firearms were taken.

Kurt was released after refusing to participate with agent Tim Watkins of the BATF to name and entrap various venders at the Big Reno Gun Show, and told to "go home". He, and his family, did so.

Upon returning home to Coeur d'Alene, Kurt was visited by the BATF agents (Jason Force and Susan Nelson) who had performed the search on his business premises. He was informed that he was KNOWN as a "major dealer in illegal machine guns and silencers in the North West", even though nothing to prove that was found during the search on April 23rd, and no witnesses to that charge have ever surfaced.

Regardless of this fact, Kurt and Angie Wilson were both charged with three felony counts in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Kurt was also charged with nine felony counts in Reno, Nevada stemming from the action at the Reno Gun Show.

The charges were dismissed in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho after it was found that the BATF agent Jason Force had "misled" the Grand Jury in getting the Search Warrant. April 11, 2005 - almost 1 year to the day since this all started, Angie and I were free of charges stemming from the BATF's illegal actions in Northern Idaho.

Having carloads of gun wielding, thugs arrest us in front of our store, the newspapers happily willing to post a 1/2 page story about us getting arrested, rumors circulating (started by Federal agents in the area) that claimed we were arrested because we were "heavy drug dealers" and mysterious crashes of 6 different computer servers (all crashes were tracked back to .GOV domains) caused us 1 year of intense emotional trauma, the loss of a 20 year family business, the loss of credibility with thousands of our customers, physical problems that have cost us thousands to handle and a drop in income of nearly 50% has left us dazed, confused and totally disgusted with our current form of government.

And that's just in Idaho - I haven't even covered Nevada.

The Nevada charges would be easy to fight if I could afford a real attorney. Instead, I was appointed a Public Defender. Their job is NOT to "defend" you, but to cut the best deal (prior to trial) they can. It's called a "plea bargain"

Here are the facts I was faced with and offered:

1) My attorney told me that if I was convicted on even one of the 9 charges in Nevada, I'd do 5 years in jail. My attorney told me she has no idea how to defend against them.

2) I was offered a plea "bargain". The Feds would drop all the charges but one (didn't matter which one) and I'd be convicted of a single felony. The Feds would ask for the lowest possible punishment, which would be no jail time. They would also give me till January 12th, 2006 to sell off my firearm collection (once a felon, you can't posses firearms)

3) If I didn't take the plea bargain, the Feds would file felony charges against my wife and my son.

Not wanting my son's name put on the Feds docket and for my family to go through another year of this crap, I accepted the plea bargain.

The Assistant U.S. Attorney in Reno Nevada (Sue Fahami) was real nice during the hearing in May. She requested the "lowest possible punishment" for this felony, and gave me 'till Jan 12 2006 to get rid of my firearm collection. She also stated that, if I needed more time than that, she'd grant it.

So now we wait. Soon, I will be reduced to just another "notch on the handle" of our run-away corrupt Federal Government. I will be a Felon, losing many "rights" that the rest of you enjoy. But don't feel bad: YOU'RE NEXT.

Survival Enterprises has been in business for over 20 years. In the beginning (until about 5 years ago) our main thrust was the firearms aspect. We were known all over the world for our quality refinishing on collectable military rifles and handguns, and sales of these collectable firearms.

As importation of many of these collectable firearms were stopped in the 1990's, we could see the "end of the road" for main firearm sales division. Sales dropped off and so did our refinishing work. We started to put our attention elsewhere.

As I have done much in the way of research into "alternative health" products (at first, for my own benefit, then more intensively for retail sales), we decided to branch out into a small line of alternative health and personal care products.

These health products now make up nearly 75% of our gross income, and the firearm sales were just dying off. We intended to make the April 23rd, 2004 Reno Gun Show our "swan song" and it would have been the last of the gun shows for us.

And now, I guess it is.

Unfortunately, all the firearms that were taken by the BATFE were going to be our retirement and further funding for our health business. Apparently, this is the manner in which our government "punishes" those who (they feel) make mistakes, or those of us that dare to speak out about the massive corruption in our government.

From the beginning I had kept everyone informed and up to date as to our ordeal with the Federal Government. Here is a copy of my last email I sent out to our mailing list:

Hi:
On Monday April 10 2005, the Federal Prosecutor (Nancy Cook) in Coeur d'Alene Idaho, threw in the towel. She filed for "Dismissal Without Prejudice" on both cases against myself and my wife. After destroying a family owned, 20 year old, world renowned business, she finally decided that she had no chance of winning her criminal case against the Wilsons and Survival Enterprises.

The Idaho debacle started when an ATF agent (Special Agent Jason Force) "misled" a Grand Jury to get a search warrant for the premises of Survival Enterprises, a 20 year old firearms business in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. His goal was to "prove" that Kurt and Angie Wilson were criminal "masterminds", making and selling illegal machine guns and silencers. (At least that's what he said later.)

A whole bunch of BBT's (Black Booted Thugs) broke in to our 5,000 sq foot store/shop the night of April 23rd, at 8pm. They were so concerned about their safety, that they did this knowing full well that the Wilson's were in Reno Nevada at the time, attending the Reno Gun Show (we were arrested there at the same time the ATF was breaking into our store in CDA).

The ATF also wanted to make sure they were well fed during their "investigation" so they first stopped off at PIZZA PIPELINE in CDA for a pizza dinner and take-out drinks that they left all over Survival Enterprise's premises.

These paragons of justice basically stole about 50 firearms from SE, along with about 25 pounds of paperwork. The guns they took were locked up in safes in my store. When I found out they were breaking into my store, I (being "detained" at the time by Special Agent Tim Watkins in Reno) gave them the combinations so they wouldn't just drill the safes open.

The firearms were returned to me on Tuesday April 12. I had to go to the ATF office in Spokane, Washington to retrieve our property. And I must say one thing:

My firearms had NOT been stored in a barrel full of water - they hadn't been dragged thru the parking lot, and there were few dings and bumps to detract from their sale-ability. I'm totally astounded! Granted, there are many miner dings, but nothing like I have seen in similar cases.

It's been just a week or so shy of one year since this started.

ATF Special Agent Jason Force, ATF Inspector Susan Nelson and Assistant Federal Prosecutor Nancy Cook are 100% responsible for destroying a 20 year old, family ran business. They've destroyed our retirement, they've destroyed my Son's inheritance (Survival Enterprises was to be handed to him upon his completion of Gunsmithing training), they destroyed my families character (they made sure the arrest was plastered all over the CDA Press) and we're now barely making ends meet. But we'll survive. At least I didn't "commit suicide" as has happened to many other people in my position....

I've learned a few things in going through this "life changing" event:

(So called) "Pro gun" organizations are worthless, except to con the public into giving them money. Not ONE of these groups: the NRA, Gun Owners of America, The Second Amendment Foundation, The Right To Keep And Bare Arms...I can name a dozen others... gave a crap that we were under attack by the Feds. At least the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership gave me a few videos to teach my lawyer about how the ATF works.

NOT ONE RED CENT OR WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT WERE GIVEN MY FAMILY by any within these groups.
I am a life member in ALL of them and, if it didn't cost 40 cents and 5 minutes of effort to mail them, I'd quit. But they aren't even worth that little effort.

Most of the general population are cowards, even the ones who call themselves "Patriots". When we were first hit by the ATF, I sent out a general distress call to over 4,000 people on our email list. Here's the responses I got:

1) 1,100 asked to be removed from our email list as they "didn't want to get involved" or "didn't want the Feds screwing with them".

2) 57 said something like "if our gov is after you, then you MUST be guilty".

3) Over 2,500 just ignored us and hoped we'd go away by blocking our email address so they wouldn't receive any further communications from us.

4) About 300 sent words of encouragement and "contact the NRA - they'll help"

5) About 40 actually came into our store to help us by buying stuff.

6) 5 people actually donated money to our legal fund ($20 to $100)

7) 1 person actually cared so much I cried. He spent $1200 and donated his car fund of $800. And he wasn't even 21 yet. (I've since repaid his donation.)

To paraphrase Forest Gump, "American is as American does" and I haven't seen a hell of a lot of true Americans in the past year.

The ATF forced myself and my wife to relinquish our Federal Firearms Licenses, so we're permanently out of the gun business. The firearms I have left were signed out to me, personally, so they are "off the books" and sale-able to anyone I choose without the necessity of doing that pesky paperwork.

1) Help us find an attorney who is willing to act "pro bono" and clear up the legal problems in Nevada and some "residual" actions here in Idaho. I will forward all legal proceedings to interested and qualified parties. Call us toll free at 1 800 753-1981

2) Buy one (or even ALL) of my firearms from my personal collection. It really is easy. Just pay me, we find a local dealer near you that will accept delivery of the firearm, and you and he do what ever paperwork is required for you to take delivery.

Go here to buys guns from me.

3) We will be selling off 20 years of accumulated "stuff" from our firearms business. (There will be a link for that soon.)